1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mass spectrometer and a method of mass spectrometry.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Mass scanning quadrupole mass filters/analyzers are ubiquitous analytical devices. However, a major drawback of mass scanning quadrupole mass filters/analyzers is that such devices have a low sensitivity due to having a poor duty cycle. If a quadrupole mass filter/analyzer scans a mass range of x Da with a mass resolution or peak width of y Da, then the duty cycle of the quadrupole mass filter/analyzer will be y/x. Conventional quadrupole mass filters/analyzers may typically scan a mass range of 1000 Da with a mass resolution of 1. Accordingly, the duty cycle of a conventional quadrupole mass filter/analyzer may be only 1/1000 or 0.1%. As a result the quadrupole mass filter/analyzer is only capable of onwardly transmitting 0.1% of the total mass range of ions received by the quadrupole mass filter/mass analyzer at any particular instance in time. All ions other than those which are onwardly transmitted at the particular instance in time will have unstable trajectories through the quadrupole mass filter/analyzer and hence will be attenuated by the quadrupole mass filter/analyzer.